Google bolsters cloud security with Mandiant deal

On Tuesday, Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced its acquisition of Mandiant Inc. for $5.40 billion, an effort to protect its cloud customers better.

The search giant said it would pay $23.00 per share for the cybersecurity firm in the agreement.

This arrangement represents a premium of about 53.00% to the public traded company’s stock price level.

Mandiant will join the tech giant’s cloud computing division, a growing competitor to Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian stated that organizations worldwide face unprecedented cybersecurity challenges.

He further noted that the sophistication and severity of attacks had targeted major governments and several companies in every industry.

Kurian explained that welcoming Mandiant to Google Cloud will further enhance their security operations suite and advisory services.

The cloud computing business generates more than $19.00 billion annually.

Remarkably, he emphasized that this deal will help customers address their most significant security challenges. Both companies now expect the agreement to close later this year.

Mandiant is a publicly-traded American firm with around $5.25 billion market capitalization. It was previously under the FireEye umbrella before that brand was sold.

Consequently, the company focuses on cyber-incident response and cybersecurity testing. It recently investigated the breaches at News Corp. and Nvidia Corp.

Analysts explained that Google’s move is at the right time as cyber warfare increases.

Accordingly, the regulatory approval of the deal will mark Google’s second-largest acquisition.

It is behind the firm’s $12.50 billion Motorola Mobility purchase. However, it sold the telecommunications company to Lenovo for $2.90 billion two years later.

Eventually, its third-largest addition is smart home product maker Nest, which it bought for $3.20 billion in 2014.

Google’s ripple impact on the cybersecurity space

Correspondingly, Google’s purchase of Mandiant could trigger a major ripple effect across the cybersecurity space.

It placed pressure on its cloud rivals Microsoft Corporation and Amazon.com Inc. to ramp up their cloud platforms. News reports revealed that Microsoft was also a suitor of Mandiant.

Analysts believe that cyber names Varonis, Tenable, CyberArk, Qualys, Rapid7, SailPoint, and Ping are potential M&A candidates.

Notably, the said vendors pivoted on protecting next-generation cloud workloads from cyber attacks.

The shift to remote working amid the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict has fueled a surge in cyberattacks.

In line with this, the demand for security software significantly hiked. Experts anticipated the market to have a value of $352.25 billion by 2026 from 2020.